Living Fully with Coronary Artery Disease: My Holistic Approach

Are you aware of the hidden risk factors that might be silently paving the way for coronary artery disease?

In this insightful episode of me&my health up, hosted by Anthony Hartcher, we dive deep into the world of coronary artery disease (CAD). This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the causes, symptoms, and preventive measures for this prevalent condition.

Our expert guest sheds light on the primary causes of CAD, including atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, and diabetes. Learn about the key risk factors and discover practical strategies to manage and prevent coronary artery disease.
From recognising early warning signs such as chest pain and shortness of breath to implementing lifestyle changes like a healthy diet, regular exercise, and stress management, this episode covers it all. Plus, we explore the benefits of holistic health coaching in managing and preventing CAD, offering a comprehensive approach to heart health.

Don't miss this episode filled with valuable insights and actionable tips to help you take control of your heart health. Tune in now and empower yourself with the knowledge to make informed decisions about your well-being.


About me&my health up & Anthony Hartcher

me&my health up seeks to enhance and enlighten the well-being of others. Host Anthony Hartcher is the CEO of me&my wellness which provides holistic health solutions using food as medicine, combined with a holistic, balanced, lifestyle approach. Anthony holds three bachelor's degrees in Complementary Medicine; Nutrition and Dietetic Medicine; and Chemical Engineering.

Podcast Disclaimer
Any information, advice, opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical, health care or other professional advice, and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this Podcast. [Connected Wellness Pty Ltd] operating under the brand of “me&my health up”..click here for more

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Transcript

Anthony Hartcher: 0:06

Welcome back to another insightful episode of me&my health up. I'm your host, Anthony Hartcher, a clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist, also known as the healthy man, according to my children, and this episode we're talking about today is on heart health. Yes, I've spoken a lot about all sorts of different health ailments, diseases, or different parts of the body different systems that we haven't really dug deep into heart health. And given my recent events around my own heart health and what's popped up in the media, I thought I'd share some insight around heart health. Because our heart is our ticker. It is our lifeforce essentially gets the oxygen around to all our organs, so that we can we can function we can live life. And if we want to live life to the fullest, we need to have a healthy heart. So I can guarantee you're out there thinking yep, I want a healthy heart. And in terms of the heart, it is such a vital part of the body. It is again, part of the it has its own brain and in essence is it has its own nervous system, there's over 40 million neurons residing in the heart. And so yes, we do have our brain we know about our brain, we know about the neurons in our brain, we've heard about the gut brain, the gut brain, and now and we have a heart brain as well. And so they're all interconnected through this intricacies around our neural network is all part of the heart, brain and the gut is all interconnected. And I'm going to share some insight around this today and how we can help our hearts because what I've read, there was a article in the Hindustan Times, which is a New Delhi paper. And they were talking about how WHO organisation, the World Health Organization last year, said, we have a real pressing problem in relation to heart issues. And it's associated with loneliness. So their concern was coming out of COVID, there is an increased pandemic of loneliness. And yes, I recorded a podcast probably not too long ago around loneliness and the impact it's having on our health. So today, we'll be focusing on the heart and how loneliness impacts the heart, as well as there was another article in The Lancet journal that spoke about the psychological stress impact on our heart. So they're the two facets I'm going to focus on around the heart, and then how it's connected with our brain and our gut, because we have three brains, as Traci Phillips shared on a previous episode about our three brains and aligning our three brains. And so in terms of loneliness, so loneliness is a perceived, it's in the eye of the beholder, it's a perception of feeling lonely, it's a feeling of lonely, again, someone from the outside may perceive that person as fine because they're always hanging out with friends, they live with a great bunch of people in their home, or they have a great family life. But it's in the eye of the beholder is where loneliness resides. Pre-COVID, it was reported up to 20% of people perceived feeling lonely. Now, after COVID. Again, this is a pretty late statistic, this is 2021 30%, that number is now climbed to 30%. So this is obviously during COVID times. And I wouldn't be surprised if this number is even higher, higher than 30%. That's been recently reported. And so one in three people are having this perception of feeling lonely. And there's many driving factors. There's not just one driving factor, obviously COVID is one of those factors that really amplified social isolation, it amplified it. And during Covid, we also saw a breakdown of relationships. And that also again, has this amplifying effect when relationships break down and having to deal with the aftermath of a broken down relationship. So that's one factor. The other one is social media. So social media is sort of making us really connected with our devices. So we're increasing connectivity with our devices, but we don't have that inner connection, that connection where we feel connected. And again, like yes, we can be up to date, but that's not a feeling of being connected or it is in essence knowing like you know what someone else is up to and you know what they're doing. But you don't have this deep underlying connection, this heart-to-heart connection. And this heart-to-heart connection is really no one or certainly, you feel it more when you're face to face. Again, it's hard to have a heart-to-heart connection when you're reading text messages, you really don't, can't really relate, you lose context, again, FaceTime or video conferencing is far better because you can also see the facial expressions, you get a greater sense of connection through face or video conferencing. However, when we're text messaging, we lose a lot of context, it's just words. And it's hard to get the feeling around those words, and we can distort the feelings around those words. And we can really misinterpret but when we're face to face, we can put on many factors together at one given time and know the context around those words being said, so this moving towards more text-based communication, is, again, we're knowing where people like we get updates of where people are at, however, we don't get a really good understanding of where people are at in their reality, in terms of how they're coping more reliance on like text, more reliance on tech, these, this is really driving us further apart, we're not feeling connected at that deeper heart to heart level. So driving this feeling of loneliness, this feeling of a sense of not connected. And our hearts, so what's our heart primarily do, it at an emotional level, it receives love and gives love at an emotional level. So in order to receive love, it's you know, we do really rely on physical presence, to receive that love to really feel that connection. Again, it doesn't, if we know the person at a real deep level, we can feel it in the absence of physical presence, but getting to know someone or when we're building relationships, it's much harder. And so we need to have a physical presence. But in order to have a physical presence, we need to be present. And this is where the mind comes into it, we need to be present with that person in order to connect with them at that deeper level. So part of the thing is that we're on the fly, we're constantly busy and thinking about our next appointment and thinking about what we haven't done, thinking about what we need to do next. And with most of the time, we're not present, when we're writing texts, we're just everything's on the fly, we're not really, really focused. And I think that's part of what people pick up is that that person doesn't have the time or day for you. They're, they're just not there. They're not present. And so this is where the mind-heart connection really comes into it, we need to get a sense of presence. And then we get that stronger underlying connection through the heart because that's entirely present with us in that moment. And so we have this whole aura about them, that they're engaged with us, we feel connected, when that heart and the heart and heart and mind are really connected, when they're really aligned. And then we're going to connect the gut and the sense the gut, we'll want to go more more into that. So we have this like so, you know, like if I just mentioned around, you know, like the heart is for receiving and giving love. The brain is obviously, the thoughts come in, we process the thoughts, and we take an action as a result of those thoughts. Whether we feel something in our body or whether we do a physical action, that's what the flow of the brain is just spoken about the flow of the heart, but the flow of the gut is we we have this duodenum which is going towards something that we we seek we want more of that, because that's prey, so to speak, that's food that's going to nourish us. And then we have the other end the anus of the gut. And that's when we pull away, that's when we want to get away from so the gut is all about going towards prey and getting away from predator. The heart is about receiving love and giving love and then the brain is the thoughts we process and then we we get a sense of feeling or we take an action as a result of that processing the thoughts. So that's the three areas of the nervous system. And what I'm saying is when we're deeply connected with someone in a physical way, or in a physical presence, when we're entirely there for them in our mind, but then we also feel it the heart connection because the heart opens. When we're present, we open our heart, we're open to receiving love in that moment. And then the gut wants more of it. It then sort of ties it all in between thinking, yeah, you're you're truly connected in this moment, let's go more into it. Let's go more deeper into that. And you have this nice alignment between the three brains. So when we're feeling lonely, we've got a closed heart, it's not open. And it may be because the people around us are too busy. And we don't feel their presence and then not allowing our heart to open and to receive love in. And so we have this blockage of this heart in this moment of feeling lonely, and loneliness, like according to these papers that I read from the Hindustan Times, and also The Lancet journal was that this loneliness or psychological stress has a huge impact on the heart. And so when we have a sense of loneliness, where our hearts blocked, in a sense, it's closed, so it's not receiving love, it's not giving love and the energy, the chi in our heart is stuck. And that causes inflammation. So when we have an energy center stuck, the energy is accumulating that. And so in order for life to flow, it needs to go in and out, it needs to be a continuum, when we have a blockage, and this can reside, reside anywhere in your body, when we have a blockage, that's where we get inflammation. And so when we feeling lonely, we have a blockage. And that inflammation in the heart will damage the endothelial lining of the arteries. And when this endothelial lining of the arteries is damaged, it allows molecules like very low-density lipoproteins, like VLDLs, LDLs, to end up behind the endothelial layer. And what happens is, when it gets below that endothelial layer, it then oxidises. And as it oxidises, it creates free radicals, which introduces the immune system, which want to come on come in and attack that and clean it up. And in this process of the immune system, cleaning up these these oxidised cholesterol, it creates a plaque in that process. And initially, that inflamed plaque is soft. And that's when it's really dangerous, that's when we can have clots, that's when that that plaque can then enter the blood vessel and then get stuck somewhere else, whether it be on the way up to the brain, gets stuck in a narrow passage, depending on the size of the clot, or it can get stuck in our heart. And when we have the block, in essence, it's stopping our you know, if it's in our brain, then we were stopping the oxygen flow to our brain and our brain dies because as you're aware that we need oxygen in order to create energy. And our brain, as well as our heart has the most densely populated areas of it with mitochondria. So the population of mitochondria, which is the powerhouse of our cell is most densely or most most populated in those two areas, the heart and the brain. And so they're really high energy consuming systems. And when they, in order to create energy, we need oxygen. And when it's starved of oxygen, it can't create energy, and that part of the brain will start to die, or that part of the heart will start to die. And this is the ischemia is what we call ischemia. So it's a lack of oxygen to that area of the heart, and that that lack of oxygen will cause damage. And that can cause a heart attack, in essence, because part of the heart is damaged, and the hearts not functioning well. And so when it's not functioning well, it shuts down. So causes the signs of a heart attack, which is that chest pain. So the the lack of oxygen really causes the heart muscle to struggle to work, and it's tense and tight, and it's trying to work but it can't because it doesn't have the oxygen to work creating that chest pain. And then we might feel that pain radiate down our arm, in particular, our left arm, we will then get a shortness of breath because we're needing the oxygen, but we just can't get enough of it because there's a blockage. And so this is what happens when we have this psychological stress, whether it be loneliness or psychological stress around something perceived in our life, that we're just feeling that we've got too much stress that we can't handle this psychological stress, this loneliness which is a psychological stress, because we're feeling lack of connection, we're humans social beings, we need interaction in order to survive humans need interaction. And if we're not getting that interaction, that's a psychological stress to our heart, our heart closes we're not receiving it. We're blocked. We struggled to give love and so we don't have that flow in our heart, as I said, that causes inflammation, that inflammation causes plaque to build up. This is what drives Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the buildup of plaques and that soft plaque, if the inflammation goes away and doesn't persist, then what will happen that soft plaque will calcify. So calcium salts will come in, and hard enough that plaque and make it more stable, where it's the soft plaque that we're concerned about. And that's through chronic inflammation, then that inflammation not going away. So whenever we're under a lot of psychological stress, whether it be from loneliness, or just busy life, or having these unrealistic expectations on ourself, or unrealistic expectations on others, or unrealistic expectation on the world, like fantasies, as these ideologies as this is the way the world should be these complete fantasies, that creates distress, because as I've shared in previous episodes, when we have a challenge, and we've got a level of support or skill sets below that, so what I'm showing here is two lines, the upper line is the challenge in our life. And that's a perceived challenge, whether that be loneliness, I'm perceiving loneliness, that's a challenge to the person, they're challenged by not having connection. It could be other stressors, such as you're judging someone or you're resenting someone or you're hating someone, or you're still have haven't got over the past event that really traumatised you, that is a challenge to the body, it's a massive stressor. Now, our body is created to deal with stress. So and our ability to deal with stress is adaptation. So that's where resilience comes into it. That's how we evolve is through stress, coping with stress, and going to another level. Now, when we have a huge amount of challenge and that could be unrealistic expectations of the world, or of others or of yourself, and then you have a level of perceived skill set down here and level of support down here. That gap between the challenge and support is distress. And that distress is a psychological stress. Because you don't see how you can get through that challenge, it's too much of a gap, you don't see that you have the skills, or you're not enough, you know, your low self-worth, you're not enough, and you don't perceive yourself ever to be able to meet that challenge. Because you're comparing yourself to others, you're not living your ideal life. And say that gap there is distress, the longer that gap resides. And the greater that gap, the more stress on our heart, the more impact we have on our heart. And so, like psychological stress can increase the likelihood of disease by 50%. That's huge. That's massive. And like these studies will show you like the The Lancet journal showed that, you know, to you got a two and a half percent times increase when, if you've had chronic stresses, or you have chronic depression, or chronic psychological stress of any type, you know, mental disorder, you know, mental stress, that will increase your chance two and a half times above someone that has low stress around the likelihood of having a heart attack. So, again, we really need to manage our stress in life in order to have good health heart, heart health, health heart, that's alright, isn't it? health heart, healthy heart, or heart health? And so what can we do to manage that stress? It's really important, what can we do? Well, we can manage our expectations on ourselves, we can, we don't need to compare ourselves to others, because we're not them. We're a complete, unique individual that has unique talent and skill set. And that's why you're here on planet Earth, to showcase that skill set. And so what you want to do is not compare yourself to someone else that has a unique skill set in another area, you want to double down on your unique skill set and talent. And there is that area of talent will be the things that you do without anyone reminding you to do it's the things that you go to you just do automatically that you feel a sense of peace, connection, presence, enthusiasm around when you do that task, it will get you present, you'll feel enthusiastic, you'll feel energised when you do that task, whatever that task is, that's what you want to be constantly doubling down on and getting better at and developing a mastery in that and then that's what you can give back whereas if you're comparing yourself to someone else that has a unique skill set and value in some other area, then that is futile because you're not them and you don't have the same values and you're comparing something that is lower value to you, and highest value to them. That's a mismatch. That's like comparing apples to oranges. So what we want to do is compare ourselves to where we were yesterday in the area that we value most. And so what I'm doing one of the areas I value most is health and my health knowledge and sharing that health knowledge, but also leaving that health knowledge, I then go about applying that health knowledge. And so I'm not comparing myself to someone else in health or whatever, I'm not comparing myself to someone else that has business success or great sporting success. I'm comparing myself to where I was yesterday with respect to my progress around health, the area that I value most. So it's really important that you focus on that area that's important to you and constantly develop that area double down in that area, that's when you'll feel alive, that's when you'll feel connected. That's where you'll make great connections. So if you're feeling lonely, you'll find you connect with people that also value the area that you value. So I'm very much connected to the listeners of me&my health up. Because I know you have a value on health, we have a common value, but the degree in which we live that value will be different based on how important it is to you. So it might not be your number one important, it might be number two or number three value, but it's up there as one of your highest values. So again, it's no point comparing yourself to me because you are completely unique, you have completely unique goals and your vision around your health is different to my vision around my health, and so chasing different things. And so there's no point of comparing yourself to me around health and what I'm doing. It's what works for you and what resonates for you. Because not everything I share with you will resonate with you, will have that magnetic pull into your heart, again, because you're unique in being you and I just want you to be you. And this brings me to the point of I mentioned in terms of what I've discovered around heart health and hence my interest around this episode today of heart health and it's really funny or coincidental how this all evolved. So let me share a story I'm going to is going to go in and share a story. So I was going for my next grading in karate and part of the prerequisite to grade was to get a medical checkup. Okay, I thought okay, fine. Been looking after myself. Then doing all the things around good health, I focus on improving my sleep and my sleep has been improving. I move my body every day in different ways. And so I do you know, resistance training, I do cardio, I do high intensity, I do light exercise, I do stretching so anyway, I will do all the facets of exercise I love it I you know I live every day that I just can't miss a day where I'm not moving my body I love moving my body I love I love my sleep sleeps always been a priority to me and improving sleep. I'm very focused on my nutrition, very focused on my nutrition. And I'm always looking at how I can tweak that. And as you probably know through prior recordings, and if you follow me on social media, I've really gone down to an area of improving my mitochondrial function because our mitochondria is is in essence, our, our life force with without the mitochondria functioning, we don't have life. There's no life through us, right? There's no life taking energy in and allowing energy to flow through us and out. We don't have that conjugate, the conjugate stops if the mitochondria stops. And so I thought I really want to improve my mitochondria as I age and our mitochondria efficiency lessens as we go through the decades of life. So I went about renovating my mitochondria over the summer break. And I've been, as you know, many of you will be aware I've been getting up in the morning watching the sunrise. I've been really focusing my food. So it's more keto. So my food, my diet is more fat-based, really low carbohydrates, more protein, but really focused on the fats and getting in lots of fats. Again, the fats, well, depending on which angle you're come from, they can be deemed as bad fats. But from my you know, from my perspective, it's unprocessed fats. So they're, they're good, you know, their fats that are benefiting my mitochondria. I wouldn't I wouldn't say they're entirely good. They are what they are, but I don't demonise them say they're bad. So I'm eating more saturated fats, which some people would say that's bad. That's bad for your heart health. Okay, so that's a misconception that saturated fats are bad for our heart. And I'll probably get into that hopefully, if not in this episode, and then other episode because I'm going to share my journey. So anyway, I went about doing this medical test, I went to the GP, the GP said, you know, I asked, I need a medical clearance to do this grading and this gradings extremely physical in a sense that you train eight hours over the weekend before the grading and the grading goes for about five hours, it's five hours of pretty much nonstop testing. And before that, you've done eight hours of training over two days, this is all done over Saturday and Sunday. So it's quite demanding on the body. I've recently done a grading, and I found myself really good in good condition. And I got through that grading well, and I was renovating my mitochondria in the lead up to this grading to improve further improve my fitness. Because ultimately, if we can improve the way in which we derive energy, derive energy as well as create energy, well, that's the same thing, isn't it? So I'm looking at ways in which I can create more energy. And doing this diet was one of those ways in which I could create more energy. And if I can create more energy, I'll be able to give more energy, right? So that's my strategy. And I was feeling great. And I'm still feeling great about what I'm doing. So went through the testing, I got my got some bloods done, and the bloods came up that you know, had high cholesterol, which I have had a history of high cholesterol, and this is in my genetics. My brother has high cholesterol, my mom has high cholesterol, it flows in my family. So it's in my family tree. And I've generally been on the high side of cholesterol, not off the charts. But on the high side of cholesterol. And that's been constant. It's been a very much a constant. Everything else was pretty much pretty good, right? You know, tick the box ECG, I passed the ECG based on the high cholesterol, the doctor said, I want you to get a CT scan, we need to check your calcification around your arteries of your heart, because you have high cholesterol said not a problem, I'd love to check in never done the tech never done this test before. So I thought this was a good chance to get this test done to find out where I'm at. Now on a previous episode, you might have record I spoke up about my Candida in my toes, right? I've got fungi on my toes. And I've pretty much done all the medical things such as antifungals, and antibiotics and all that sort of stuff. I've done all the ointments and put on tea tree oil, and all these sort of stuff. And really, my toes weren't getting better. And for me, I then thought it's because of the circulation, I was starting to go down my thinking around, it's got to be circulation, because I do get cold hands and feet, right? So in the when I go swimming or do something, my hands and feet get really cold. And so again, that's a circulation issue. Its circulation. So I knew there was something up with circulation. But I was thinking I've done a lot of good things over the years, my heart, my ticker that's delivered, right? I have done Ironman, I've done marathons, I have been really fit, I felt really fit and I've been feeling fit over the decades. So thinking my heart health got to be good. It's it has to be good. However, it confused me as to why I had this poor circulation towards my feet and my hands and hence the Candida was because there was not enough turnover of cells down there. Hence, the Candida was helping me do that turnover of cells. And that's how we work with nature. So that was something that I could it was a bit of a puzzle. So went ahead got the CT scan done. It was an interesting time. And if you had never had a CT scan, you'd go into this tube and you've got these noises, it's like going into a washing machine. And these lots of noises, the robots talking to you, machines talking to you telling you what to do. And I felt like I spent a bit more time in there than what I anticipated. And I got a sense when I was in there, that I was being kept in there for a reason. I still didn't click with me still didn't click and then I get out and I sort of all chirpy and sort of, you know, making jokes and joking around. But obviously the nurse was a bit more serious. And obviously, I had no idea what was going on, until I got to the doctor the next day. And I went to the doctor, and the doctor pulled up the results. And it showed a calcium calcified score of 504. And that's off the charts, right? So for my age, they're expecting something between zero and 100. And I'm at 504, five times where I should be. It classified me in the 99 percentile of the bad side, right? 99% I was thinking I wouldn't mind being in that 99 percentile when I was at school doing the HSC. Well, that didn't happen. But I get in the 99 percentile of an area that I value one of the highest areas of my life, one of the most important areas of my life, my health and I'm looking at a 504. And I knew, I thought doesn't make sense. I can't make sense of this. And I was in shock. And I was thinking, Oh, you must have the wrong, you've pulled up the wrong scan, you've pulled up the wrong test result. It's not me, it's someone else. There's a mistaken identity here. There's been a mixed match. But it's my name, my date of birth. And yes, it's a 504. And so, I've got coronary artery disease. And I'm thinking, Okay, I know, through my studies, what are the, I guess, strong associations or strong correlations with coronary artery disease, smoking, look, I didn't smoke. I've never been a smoker. I mean, obviously, teenage years, you play around with a few things, but never been a chronic smoker. There was a period where I was working in a nightclub where smoking was still allowed in nightclubs. And so I was doing some big shifts in nightclubs. But again, it was, you know, once or twice a weekend for, I think, six months in my life, maybe, you know, that had an impact could have, potentially. So yeah, I have been exposed to passive smoke more, more than what I've deliberately done to myself, way more. And drinking, I've never been a big drinker. So I yes, I've done the occasional binge drink, but I've never, you know, like, I just don't drink regularly never had a regular drink. I haven't been drinking for years, you know, pretty much stopped in my 20s. And so, you know, alcohol hasn't been a big part of my life. And then exercise, which is, you know, sedentary people have a higher risk of coronary artery disease, exercise, I've pretty much done it every day of my life. I can't live a day without exercise to the point where if I was flying, you know, overseas or something like that, and my plane was leaving early, I'd get up at 3 am or 4 am in the morning and run in the dark in order to get some exercise in because I knew that I might miss it that day. And so it's always been a high priority for me is exercise. I love my exercise. So I couldn't work out that so pretty much a non-drinker, nonsmoker, exercise, again, a lot, maybe too much. I don't know. And then the other part of the equation is diabetes. sugar intake. Well, I've always been conscious with my diet. I don't eat processed foods. I don't eat junk food. I don't eat a highly saturated fried foods, you know, pretty much on the occasion, Yes, but rarely, right? Really rare, really rare. And I've never had a real issue with blood sugar. Yes, I have fruit and fruit. I have fruit over the years, probably the closest I've gone to having high amounts of sugar juices. I don't drink juice. I mean, I had a period where I was drinking juice when it was trending way back. This is decades ago. However, yeah, don't drink juice. I hate whole fruit. And I've been pretty much plant base for last 20 years plant-based diet for the last 20 years. Yep, I still have high cholesterol. Okay, and now I've got carotid artery disease, plant-based diet, and I've never carried weight. Well, I've carried more muscle, but I've never really carried excess fat. I've been a fairly lean body throughout my whole life, lean body. And so that's another risk factor is having obesity or carrying excessive weight around your abdomen, having a bit high BMI I've never had I mean, my BMI is up because of my muscle mass. So again, I've didn't have any of these things. The only one I had in terms of risk factors was hypercholesterolemia. Okay, high cholesterol is the only one I've had. Now, the other thing they don't talk a lot about is the psychological stress that The Lancet Journal recently spoke about psychological stress. Yes, I have lived this busy life. So I have been very busy during my career pushing, pushing, pushing myself, I've always been a push up. So I've always pushed myself. I've always pushed the limits. And so that striving, striving to achieve more has been a big factor in my life. It's not anymore, but it has been and I'm thinking I think the psychological stress coupled with the hypercholesterolemia has probably led me down to the path of having coronary artery disease. So yes, I can relate to psychological stress being a major factor. So as much as I was doing healthy things and living a healthy life, I was constantly pushing myself. So where does that come? It comes from the lack of self-worth, lack of self=esteem, and thinking I'm not worthy of love. That's where the pushing came from. I was always trying to achieve more, impress more in order to hope to win someone's love. And that was my strategy. I always no matter what result I got, it wasn't enough, because I felt that I wasn't enough, I had low self-worth. And so I needed to achieve more. So go about achieving more. And so I had this constant endeavor to achieve more and push my body to limits. And that way I get love, but not realising that love is unconditional, I now know that that love is unconditional. And so I don't need to do anything in order to be be someone in order to receive love, I just need to be me. And then I'm lovable because people know who I am. And recently, I have been more authentic, I'm accepting who I am, I've got a greater acceptance of who I am, and greater and greater focus on my priority. So the last 10 years have been really focused on my priority. So really, it's really weird last 10 years. So like, coronary artery disease is something that takes decades to build. So this just didn't happen overnight. This isn't over the last week, I've got coronary artery disease, this takes decades, okay? So this could have been happening in my 20s. I'm 47 now, so it could have happened over the last 20 years over that last 20 years. And as I said, last 20 years, I've had a pretty much a plant-based diet. And that is associated with good heart health, very much that Mediterranean type of diet, plant base with seafood is prime, but primarily what I've eaten without red meat, red meats, you know, supposedly bad for heart health. So, you know, again, we need to not draw, like draw a conclusion from one aspect, it's multitude of aspects. So in my case, it's the inflammation from the psychological stress, coupled with the hypercholesterolemia, that's really got me where I am today, I'm much better with my psychological stress. So in terms of my coping ability going forward, it's incredible, you know, I had this coronary artery disease without any signs or symptoms. So it shows that my body's found a way to work with it, it can cope, well, my heart scores came back good. So my heart, my ticker is in good order. It's just the supply to it and from it or away from it, so that the arteries going into the heart from the lungs. So the the the blood that's oxygenated, going into the heart, which is important, you need oxygenated blood going into the heart, because that how that's there, how the heart creates energy in order to then pump it out to the rest of the body. So I've got that block going in, also blocked going out from memory, in terms of what I saw going out is worse. And that sort of explains why I have the circulatory issues, why I have cold hands and feet, while I have Candida in my toes. Why? On both sides, I'm losing hair around my calf, you know, calf muscles, like loss of hair. So again, the nutrition is not getting down there, the blood flow is not great down there. But now I know why. And it's the missing piece of the puzzle. And so yes, it was a shock to receive that. And then you start doubting your identity. And this is gets back onto attachment. I recently did an episode on attachment, and saying that it's not good to be attached. It you know, again, when we have this attachment to something, where then giving up our ability to experience life, and it becomes dependent on external factors. You don't want your life dependent on x black belt in karate, I was wanting to make up for my childhood of not getting to Black Belt. But again, what this is teaching me is not to get attached to outcomes, I had a goal to get my black belt by 50. I really wanted that goal, and I was working towards it working hard towards it. And my hopes have been dashed. But then I'm thinking, does that matter? Does it matter? If I've got something black around my thing, there's just something you put on your resume? Does it really define who I am? No it doesn't, it really doesn't. And I'm thinking in terms of my thoughts about unfinished business. Is there really a void? Do I really have a void or something missing? No, I don't, because, as I've said on previous episodes, nothing is gained or lost, nothing is missing. It's just transformed from one form to another. And so I had this perceived loss, that I hadn't achieved something. And I was trying to pursue something that was unfinished, but I perceived as unfinished, but it's just been part of my transformation. And this is part of my transformation. And so I'm now accepting that I have it, and it's just part of who I am. And it's part of what I'm going to work with. And part of what how I'm going to help others. It just gives me another angle to now help others. I really want to empower your heart health to a point I'm thinking thinking of setting up another podcast, me&my heart. And that was, I was thinking that's going, I'm going to share my journey on that me&my heart podcast show. So it may happen. It may not. I need to think about it more, but certainly the me&my health up's going to continue all the way until I no longer function or my mitochondria shuts down this this episode, these episodes will keep dropping every week. It's my goal. And I love empowering you. And I'm going to continue to empower you with my knowledge around health and wellness. So yes, this is part of my transformation. And when I reflected back as to have I ever been in perfect health, and I thought No, never, I actually reflected back so when I was in my infant years, I had ear, nose, throat infections, ENT constant ENTs all the time, gluey ears to the point I had my tonsils removed. And I had grommets inserted to help the situation yet there was no focus on my immune health I had come up by immune health was so bad, I was doused with antibiotics. So my my gut health was shot early age early, early on and and I struggled with gut health. And so that transpired into me having acne so I guess that ears, nose, throat problems, gut issues, then transpired into me having acne as a teenager and I took Roaccutane and all the antibiotics associated with helping with acne again, there was no focus on my diet, no focused on my psychological stress, no focus on any other factors other than his a antibiotic and his Roaccutane, which is toxic doses of vitamin A. So I was vitamin I off the Richter scale, my liver was struggling to process all this toxicity of vitamin A. And guess what we need to process or break down vitamin A, we need zinc. And I was thinking, again, I was zinc deficient, because of the vitamin A toxicity. And that resulted in other health outcomes such as it really affects your skin health, and your immune health and your mental health. And so that triggered a cascade of issues as a result of taking Roaccutane. So I had acne during my teenage years. And then 20s 30s And 40s would have predominantly been my heart disease. And so my, I guess, initially that immune function, immune dysfunction, and then gut dysfunction, and then gut skin dysfunction. And then I had sort of mental health issues in teenage years, you know, I continued to think I wasn't enough and wasn't worthy of love and, and got depressed for periods of time. And then in my 20s, I continued to push myself continue to chase love and continue to think if I achieved more, I would receive more love, which was a fantasy. And again, I had unrealistic expectations of myself. And that resulted in increased distress. As I mentioned earlier, the greater the distress, the gap between your expectations and reality, the greater that gap is, the greater the distress. And so I had a huge gap between my expectations and reality. And that resulted in the psychological stress, which obviously put an impact on my heart. And it's where I am today. So in actual fact, I've never had perfect health, my house always been there with disease. And you think about the Chinese philosophy around the Darwinism around Yin and Yang, right? So there's always Yin and within Yang and Yang within Yin. And so I've always had disease within health and health within disease. And so nothing's ever been missing, it's always been there. And in terms of like, me not achieving things perceiving that I was missing, nothing was missing. I just transformed and focused on the things that were more important to me. And at the time, karate was less important. My focus was on surfing, my focus was on running and swimming, I loved all those activities more than karate. So, in actual fact, it was just the evolution of me. And I got back into karate, because my children started doing karate, and I was doing it with them. But I haven't lost that ability to do karate with them, I can still do karate with them. I just don't proceed up the grades, but I can watch my children proceed up the grades, I can participate with them. And that was the main driver, so nothing is missing. I still have that ability to do karate with them, which I loved and I'll continue to do karate with them. I just won't get the accolades of proceeding or feeling like I'm progressing, but I can progress in my own mind because I can still take on the challenges of increasing my skill set and focusing on increased I just don't have the physical appearance. to show for it or the trophy to show for it and is life about trophies? No, because at the end of life, people don't talk about your trophies, people talk about the difference you made in them, the impact you made in others. And I'm still doing that today. It is through this podcast, I'm making an impact. And I want to continue to make an impact through this podcast, I guess this focus is now more that I need to make it an impact every day like I need to live every day as if it's my last I'm going to hit continue that way, I was already doing it over the last decade. So it's reminded me that I need to, because I just don't know when that last day will be. And so if I live every day as if it's my last, and I constantly put time and energy into this podcast, and empower others. That's the legacy I want to leave. And I want to leave that legacy, this is why I do what I'm doing is I want to make an impact on others I want to enhance and enlighten your well-being. And so if anything, I'm going to dedicate more time to this, because I'm realising I was probably pursuing something that was just a thing that I really just wanted the aspect of doing something with my children, and I can still do that. And I don't need to put myself through the torture, of having to get injured. And you know, in all reality in the lead up to me receiving that news, my thoughts were, I do like karate, I like the challenge. But I don't like the injuries, I really don't want the injuries. And so now going forward, I can do karate, without the contact without the sparring. And that was where I was getting my injuries. And I'm thinking, haven't I just want haven't I just in a sense, just, it's just meant to happen. This was meant to happen. Like some people could think, Ah, it's all you know, Anthony, you got coronary artery disease, your health guy, and you know, isn't that bad look, and I'm thinking No, I can better relate to my clients now. Because typically, the clients I see have chronic diseases, I have a chronic disease now, I can relate to them. So I've got better empathy for my clients better understanding of my clients, therefore, I can better understand them and better help them and better connect with them. So if anything that's going to empower my ability to help others, it gives me even a stronger purpose to to do this and to empower and leave a legacy because I don't know when my last day will be, I don't know, I've got no idea. No one knows. And so that unknowing is is helping me to live my life by priority. And so I'm going to continue to make sure I live my life by priority. I'm going to continue to serve you and empower and enlighten your well-being I'll continue to do that. And I'm going to continue to focus on the areas where I'm adding more impact. And I'm not after the trophies anymore, because I've realised that I'm worthy of love by just being me. And that's what the message for you is be you and you'll receive love. And you'll have love to give and love will flow through you. Like it's flowing through me now. And yes, my damage may have been historical, I doubt I'm doing much damage today, I really do with what I'm doing and the psychological ability to handle stress these days is so much more empowered. And so I have the means and tools to manage the stress. I'm no longer striving to prove myself, I have self-worth, I'm being who I am. I'm being authentic. And I'm living a life that I've dreamed. And that is making an impact on the world. And I'll continue to strive to do that every day up until my last day. So that's my commitment to the me&my health up podcast. And in relation to your heart health, the best thing you can do is to be you be the authentic you. Because when you're authentic, you're present. You're certain you're confident, you're enthused, you have purpose. And that's when we have a balanced autonomic nervous system, a dysregulated autonomic nervous system such as the one I had in my youth, where I was constantly pursuing things and chasing things and thinking I wasn't enough. That was I had a sympathetic dominant nervous system. Now I've got a more poised nervous system. I'm living with purpose, certainty. And I'm living with enthusiasm, and I'm living with more presence. And so I'm more centered. My heart is more open as a result of being more centered, my mind is open, my heart is open. And so I can with an open heart, receive more love and give more love. And that's who I am today. I'm being me. And I'm receiving happily taking loving in and happily giving it out and allowing the flow through my heart and so therefore the bloods flowing through my heart. I don't have a chi blockage. I don't have an energy blockage. I don't have that inflammation. Yes, there may be moments of inflammation, but I've got the tools to manage those moments. So I want you to be who you are, I want you to open your mind to unlimited possibilities because you have unlimited potential being you. But you have limited potential when you are comparing yourself to others or trying to be someone else, because you're not them. There you have limits, because you're not them, you have unlimited potential being you and trying to be the best version of you. That's what I'm doing every day. And this is what I want to share with you. You live by who you are, and live by priority every day, you'll have an open mind and open heart. And the psychological stress will go out the window, because the unrealistic expectations is you comparing yourself to others. And thinking that there's someone something missing, there's nothing missing in you, you are perfectly complete as to who you are. And the things that you perceive as missing are just transforming into something else. Just like I had a transformation last week. And I'll continue to transform and evolve. And yes, life will always throw things at you to test you to challenge your thinking, to see how attached you are to things to see how you are how attached you are to your identity. Nothing will define me CAD will not define me. I am not CAD. It is something that's going on. But I think it's historical. It's the past. It's not what's happening now. And I'm, I've got a strong belief in that. And we are going to continue to do what I'm doing. And I can continue to share what I'm doing with you and empower your well-being. And throughout just this recent journey of that over the past week better understanding their condition, and better looking at ways in which I can support manage the condition. I've been doing that I've been living that for the past three, four months. So it was this just part of the journey. Like it was just like news received already knew inside me that there was something going on, I had a circulatory issue. It's now confirmed. But I'm not blindsided. I'm not defined by it. And I haven't lost who I am. I am Anthony Hartcher. And I am the healthy man and I will continue to enlighten and empower your health and well-being. So stay with me. Stay tuned for more insightful episodes of me&my health up. I'll let you know if I'm starting up me&my heart. I think I will. I really do because I want to share that specific journey my Heart Journey with others. But I want to keep this podcast the way it is holistic health, have interviews, have interviews with experts, keep it holistic. So I don't want to touch this. I love this as it is me&my health up staying standing for good every week you'll get an episode. I've got some great interviews coming up with a someone who's got an expertise in music music for mental health. Okay, so that's coming up have also got more quantum support coming up in terms of, you know, aiding your help health at a quantum level that's coming up more of that more insights around what I'm doing. And yes, what I'm doing is really helping my heart my overall wellness. And I already knew who it was it was just, I just needed something on paper to confirm it. But I shouldn't have been surprised. I was in denial. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations. And I think that that is certain that I did have unrealistic expectations, but it's not stopping me. I'm still unstoppable. And I'll continue to be Anthony Hartcher. And thank you for listening. Thank you for tuning in. Please leave your insights, your comments, and please share as to what you'd like me to share more about what would you like to learn more about please email me my email is in that where you download the episode you'll find my details or just go to meandmywellness.com.au and you'll get in contact me with me through that. And if you want to join my group coaching, I'm sharing all these insights or these profound findings that I'm finding through my research on my group coaching sessions. So once a month we get together it's a Q&A session. There's education, and we stay connected through Discord where I'm constantly helping others I'm enlightening others and every week you'll get some insight through my me&my health up club support the show down the bottom of the show notes and that will link to the me&my health up club if you join the me&my health up club plus that is where you will get the monthly group coaching. You will feel connected as part of our community and will grow together and will enhance and enlighten each other's well-being. Thank you for listening.

Podcast Disclaimer: 55:28

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